Planetary Shields

This tutorial assumes the following:
1. The pilot has a basic understanding of planetary movement (i.e. cross terrain, atmospheric travel, ascending, descending)
2. Basic knowledge of exiting and entering ships and facilities

We (Stone Strik Enterprise) will utilize planetary shields to protect our cities and citizens from orbital bombardment as well as prevent an enemy invasion to the planet surface (i.e. enemy troop drop ships). Our first line of defense against a full scale invasion is our shield grid. It is our hope that the planetary shields will hold up long enough for our military to arrive and thwart the invasion.

Currently, it is impossible to damage or completely destroy a shield grid through the use of, say, capital ship batteries. With that said, shields still play an important role in our strategic defense as we gear up for the day combat is activated.

So how do we create a planetary shield? It starts with the single Shield Generator (SG) facility. A single SG will cover a 3x3 square grid on a planet’s surface (9 total cities) and will provide 10,000 points of shield strength in that area (shield strength is not useful until combat is implemented). Typically SG are built to allow for overlap in the shields. Overlapping shields will “stack” shield strength.

The example below shows four SGs (red dots) positioned relatively close together on a planet’s surface. Notice the four shades of colors, all representing different shield strengths.

The outer edge, very transparent colors, does not have any overlapping shields from other SG, they have a shield strength of 10,000 points.

The four purple tinted squares have two shields overlapping, so shield strength of 2x or 20,000 points.

The four less transparent blue squares have three shields overlapping, so shield strength of 3x or 30,000 points.

Finally, the center non transparent purple square in the center has four shields overlapping, so shield strength of 4x or 40,000 points. I think you get the picture.



The above is just an example of how shields can overlap. It’s important to understand that although the above will protect the shielded area against bombardment, it will not protect against incursion. If there is any part of the planet’s surface that is not covered by a shield, it’s possible for any ship to drop down to the planet’s surface and travel to the area below a shield via crossing terrain. It’s critical to have the entire planet shielded.

What about damage? Even though combat isn’t implemented yet, there are some basic rules covering shield damage (subject to change when combat becomes a reality). Shields that have taken damage will recharge at 2% of their maximum strength, every 4 hours until they are fully restored. SGs that drop to 0% strength will collapse, and must wait until they have more then 0% power to restart.

So why not have more than one SG per city? SWC rules state only one SG can be active per city. It is allowed to build more than one SG per city for backup purposes but again, only one can be active per city.

For ease of control of 30 or more SG on a planet, we typically build a Computer Control Center (CCC). Each SG is entered and linked to the CCC that is on the same planet. The steps below detail how to link a SG to a CCC.

** Coincidentally, the same steps apply for linking a Shield Projector **
The following criteria must be met in order to link a SG to a CCC:
1. You must be the manager and/or operator of the SG facility you want to link to the CCC
2. Tion must own the CCC

The first step is to “Enter” the SG facility.



Once inside the SG facility, navigate to the “Building Management” room by traveling right then right again. Click on “Building Management”.



Once in the Building Management screen (see below), click on “Actions”.



A “Shields” button will appear. Click “Shields”.



The “Shield Data” as well as the planet grid will appear. From this screen you can either “Engage” or activate the shield manually or click on “Assign Control Center” – which is what you will need to do 99.99% of the time. It will be very rare that you will be required to active a SG from the SG facility, it will almost always be activated from the CCC. So, click on “Assign Control Center”.



A listing of all the CCC on the planet be displayed. In this case, there is only on CCC on the planet. Click the “Assign” then click “Submit”. The SG is now linked to the CCC.



From here, navigate back to the ship and move to the next SG that needs to be linked to the CCC.

Now that you have all of the SG linked to the CCC it’s time to fire the Planetary Shields up and see how you did.

You’ll need to travel to the city location of the CCC and enter the CCC facility. Navigate to the “Building Management” room by traveling right, down, right, right, right, up, upstairs, upstairs. Click on “Building Management”.

After you click on “Building Management”, click “Actions”, the below screen will load, then click “Manage Shields”.



A list of SG and, if linked, the Shield Projector will be loaded. Click “Activate” on all SG and Shield Projectors. It will take an hour for the shields to come up so be patient.



The last step is to navigate back to the cockpit of your ship, ascend to the atmosphere and wait for the shields to engage. The planet will be covered in a transparent blue color that appears to pulsate. Verify that entire planet is covered by the Planetary Shield.